ZapWizard's Media PC -Project on hold

Shhh, the wife may see this...

 

Im assuming your wife isn't dumb, since she is married to you, so i think she prob. can guess its a hell of a lot of money!!

 

!?

zap, i'm just curious. how long have you been doing this kind of stuff? and did you learn it at school, or mostly on your own? how old are you? why is the sky blue? why? WHY? WHYYYYY?!

 

Da_Bacon, most of this questions i'll let for Zap aka "Mr. AMD" himself to answer. but if you don't know why the sky is so blue i really pity you.

everybody knows the sky is blue because that's where the smurfs are made. besides, god's a modder too and he's got a blue cathode to shine down on us all.

 

i was just testing to see if YOU knew the answer!!

 

You idoit!! Its God's 20 intake LED fans made by our friends at Antec!
And the cold cathode.... But mostly the fans...

 

Or are we living in a tinted plexi case?

 

Re: !?

I have been doing electronics for 13 years now.
I am 22 years old, I learned most of it by experimenting, then the official (math) stuff at school. Work experience also helps.

The sky is blue because that is the color most reflected back to us from the gases in the atmosphere (spelling..)
All others are either passed or obsorbed.
...................................................................
Now back on topic guys...

I have a ton of parts on their way:
PCI Serial Card (Will be used for the remotes)
More LED's Resistors, and general parts for the lighting.

I also found a nice PCMCIA Internal PCI card reader for $15.
Which means my media PC will now be able to take any PCMCIA card, such as wireless LAN adapters, and more importantly Flash Memory Cards.

I am going to make my PCB's using the Laser/Toner Iron on method.

I also got a better heatsink rather than the OEM version.
Pictures of all this stuff as it gets put together.

Right now, I am very busy at work so you guys can get your Opterons in time.
(I worked 14 hours on monday, and 12 hours today)

ZZZZzzz...... gdkkd...(Removes head from keyboard..)

My next update will probably be in a week or so.

 

Re: Re: !?

Where? I'd like to get my hands on one of those

 

Re: Re: Re: !?

Austin has a nice Goodwill computer store.
Goodwill is a donation organization for clothes and stuff.

But around here there are enough PC's they have their own computer store.

They have every goodie you could want.
Old and new (Socket A even) motherboards.
Monitors, Sun systems, HUGE server cases.
Power supplies, Rack mount LAN Switches.

I check in about once a week and snatch all the good stuff.
It is a modders goldmine

This is the only pic I could find of it..

http://www.austingoodwill.org/crs/store pics/ComputerWorks.gif

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: !?

/me wishes there was one in New Jersey


/edit Dont need to use quotes when responding to the last post.
/ -ZapWizard

 

Ok time for new goodies!!!

A brand new super thin finned heatsink, to replace the OEM style heatsink. The fins are also in a V shape; this heatsink ROCKS.





------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Dual Serial/Parallel Card:
I don't have to mod this. as I am only using one of the ports internaly.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The PCMCIA Card (And adapter)
Now I can use any PCMCIA Card / Adapter



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A sweet wireless keyboard/optical mouse combo.
Only $30 at a compusa sale.
I would like to internalize the USB receiver, but since this unit is so cheap the receiver may have to sit a few feet away from the case due to the antenna.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More in a second....

 

Re: Re: !?

you mean makign hideous mistakes & wathcing it go up in smoke
j/k m8, too good a opertunity to miss

but this is reallly really coming alogn with all the custom work gone into it you can proudly say there is not another like it anywere in the world

pretty nice thing to be able to say that init

 

Now for the exciting new development...

Dual TV Tuners!
ATI Multimedia Center 8 now supports picture-in-picture, Record one program - while you watch another, and Dual TV windows!
This used to only be good on the AIW 9700 PRO, but the new version supports any Radeon series, and a WDM compatible TV tuner.

Sooo.... I ripped the ATI TV Wonder out of my main PC for use in the Media PC.
(I replaced the one in my main PC with a cheapo $5 TV card from the same CompUSA sale, seamless change out without any software change at all)



There is only one problem.
With all the newly added card I have ZERO free PCI slots.
The only slot left is the slot next to the AGP socket.
Normaly I would not choose this slot, due to IRQ conflicts.
But since the TV-wonder and ATI AIW card use the same IRQ anyways it won't hurt any.

But since I added on the Video Output jacks, I have half of the slot's back-plate used up.
Well the TV-Wonder only uses the bottom half of the card anyways.

So... out with the dremel. That's right I am going to CUT into a perfecly good PCB.

The new result: A half-height TV card! (kinda)





How did I know it would be safe to cut where I did?
By holding the PCB up to a bright lamp, and checking for traces passing between the Circuit, and Connector portions of the board.



There was only one trace going to the area I cut off, it is for PAL tv-input, which is not installed on this TV-Card. So cutting it results in no harm.

Now the ATI TV-Wonder fits right next to the ATI All-in-Wonder.
The almost look like one HUGE card.

 

Here are two pictures of the final board layout.

 

Cool, I have one of those ATI TV wonder cards, nice card, bad software I am curently struggling to get it to understand that I want sound recorded along with my video, and it is fighting all the way

Looking and sounding even more cool as life goes on

 

nice mosnter franky stain

 

Re: Re: !?

You mean Athlon 64s, surely?

 

I work on DDR for Opteron processors.
Basicly I was finishing final certifications, usualy these have a deadline of one month before actual release.

As far as Athlon 64's you got to talk to the guys in the other lab
Actualy Athlon 64 work is ahead of schedule, and getting pretty routine

 

Damn, this thing looks like its going to be HEAVY.

Good thing this isnt a lan box or anything.